The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG) announced on Tuesday that it had terminated the Olympic product license of a stationery company in south China's Guangdong Province for using child labor.
BOCOG said in a statement on its website that investigations into child labor allegations by PlayFair 2008, a global alliance of trade unions and labor organizations, had found that Lekit Stationery Company Ltd. did use child labor, albeit not for products which were related to Olympic products.
The Labor Department of Guangdong Province, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and BOCOG conducted the investigations.
The BOCOG ordered the Guangdong company to cease manufacturing and selling the products immediately.
Investigators said that three other companies involved in the scandal had not used child labor. But they did suspend the examination and approval of new product designs created by the three companies after finding they had forced employees to work overtime. The investigators ordered these three companies to "rectify their mistakes".
The companies in question are: Eagle Leather Products Co. Ltd., Yue Wing Cheong Light Products Ltd. and Mainland Headwear Holdings Ltd.
In January and February of 2007 Lekit Stationery Co. hired eight vacationing students of unknown age to package their products, the statement said.
Charges also allege that the companies hired workers without signing labor contracts.
(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2007)
